If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

They left out ignorant redneck, but I'm not mad. Just feel left out.:(

Hollywood's 6 Favorite Offensive Stereotypes
By Juan Arteaga

People think of Hollywood as the most liberal place in the known universe, but really that only goes as far as the drugs and orgies are concerned. When it comes to minorities, Hollywood still seems to have a few shamefully corny and simplistic roles in mind. Here's the six Hollywood stereotypes that can't die soon enough: #6.The Magic Negro

As Seen in:

The Green Mile, The Legend of Bagger Vance, The Shawshank Redemption, Bruce Almighty, Song of the South

The Magic Negro is a simple, humble person. Perhaps he is a janitor, or a farmer, and he doesn't know anything about those fancy colleges or them modern sciences, but what he knows, he knows from the heart, and that makes it truer than any of your whitey statistics, facts or pie charts.

He can have actual magical powers (Michael Clarke Duncan in The Green Mile) or simply possess an extraordinary level of earthly wisdom (Morgan Freeman in The Shawshank Redemption).

In all cases, the Magic Negro has zero ambitions of his own. His entire existence revolves around the lead white character, whom they help with their simple, rustic wisdom even if it costs them their lives. It's as if they have nothing better to do, which they don't, because the plot is about the white guy achieving his goals.

What's So Bad About That?
Notice that the Magical Negro's powers are not in any way due to his own work or training at all. He's no Batman. And why do they have to be prisoners or janitors again?

Also, notice that they're still acting as the servant here. They only exist in the story to help the lead white character. That's right, black youth of America: even if you discover you have powers that transcend time and space, you'll still wind up serving the white man. Hell, Morgan Freeman's God in Bruce Almighty basically alters the whole fucking universe, just so Jim Carrey can get his priorities straight.

The Flaming Homo Bad Guy only has one goal in life, to be gayer and more evil than anybody else. If he sees a guy in a salmon-colored shirt and white khakis clubbing a baby seal, the Flaming Homo Bad Guy will put on a pink tutu, gather up some baby seals, kittens and puppies and rent a wood chipper.

He may actually be overtly homosexual (Braveheart) or he may just carry out his evil with a series of effeminate gestures and phrases and show a creepy, semi-erotic fascination with the male hero.

What's So Bad About That?
You may be asking why we included this instead of the "Bad Guy With Foreign Accent" seen in countless action movies--the Die Hard films, just for starters.

The difference there is at least there's usually some sort of reason in the plot why the foreign bad guy is foreign. The movie Red Dawn may have been propaganda, but the bad guys were Russian because it was about a war with Russia, not because Russians are inherently dicks.

The effeminate bad guy, on the other hand, plays right to the insecurities of the young, male audience those movies are aimed at, taking everything they find disgusting about homosexuality and using it to ratchet up the horror.

"Look! A serial killer!"

"Meh."

"And he's dancing around naked in a room full of body parts!"

"That's pretty gross, I guess."

"And he's stuffed his junk between his thighs so he looks like a woman!"

"OH JESUS GET OUT OF MY WAY I'M GOING TO BE SICK."

#4.The Latina Maid

As Seen in:

Goonies, Maid in Manhattan, Spanglish, Crash, Mad Money, Down and Out in Beverly Hills.

The Latina Maid's role before was usually played by compact Hispanic women between 30 and 60 years old, but now may be played by J.Lo. The entire role has them in the background of the film running around with a vacuum cleaner, or waving a duster around at some vases removing their dust and your dignity at the same time.

But don't worry! The Latina Maid will usually have her time to shine and use her special secret move in the middle of the movie, when she runs into one of the important lead characters doing something "wacky" like cross-dressing, parading in a Hitler costume, or spreading peanut butter on his genitals in front of the family dog.

At this point the Latina maid will do the sign of the cross at lighting speed multiple times and scream "AY, EL DIABLO!" before running away and screaming hysterically, never to be seen in the foreground again.

If you want details you can always ask actress Lupe Ontiveros ...

... Who has been cast as a maid between 150 to 300 times.

What's So Bad About That?
Back in the '50s, Hollywood assumed that by 2000 the American cities would be utopias served by an army of robot servants. So we shouldn't exactly be bursting with pride over the fact that here in the future we've replaced "robots" with "grossly underpaid immigrants."

But why does "Latina Maid" make the list whereas, say, the "Sexy Latino Gardener Who Bangs the Lady of the House" doesn't? The problem is Hollywood has progressed from using the Latina maid as a prop to give those wacky, exaggerated foreigner reactions (i.e., the ending of Goonies) to the more modern, enlightened version where the maid is young and saucy and is the object of lust for the Caucasian male of the house (Maid in Manhattan, Spanglish).

Great job, Hollywood! You've elevated the Latina maid all the way up into "French maid" territory. Can the sexy "Latina maid" Halloween costumes be far behind?

Progress!

#3.The Mighty Non-Whitey

As Seen in:

The Black Knight, Bringing Down the House, Trading Places, Hairspray, Money Talks, Head of State, Bullworth, Houseguest, Big Momma's House 2.
This is a kind of flip-side to a genre of movie you've seen a hundred times. In those films, the white, American male has to live with a non-white or non-American (or both) culture for some reason. At first, white American doesn't like the other culture, but slowly starts adopting it.

At the end of the movie, the white American saves the day with his whitey know-how and is considered a really awesome member of his new community (see The Last Samurai, Dances With Wolves, City of Joy, etc).

The "Mighty Non-Whitey" takes that idea and turns it around, where the jive-talking black guy winds up in some white-dominated situation and turns their world upside down (see Head of State, where a black man runs for president! Ha!)

What's So Bad About That?
You'll notice that in the white version of this tale, the white man adopts to the other culture and then excels (will not Dances With Wolves' Kevin Costner be remembered as the greatest Sioux of them all?). But with a black actor in the role, suddenly he's the Fresh Prince of Bel Air, a fish out of water, saving the day with dancing, rapping and taking things easy.

At best, the hero is a fast-talking con artist, who's constantly putting one over on the trusting, stuffy whites (Beverly Hills Cop). Usually the tension between cultures is resolved once and for all when the stuffy white man adopts one of his ghetto catchphrases, or, even better, raps a little.

#2.The Wise, Old, Asian Asshole

As Seen in:

Big Trouble in Little China, Heroes, Breakfast at Tiffany's, Kill Bill, Norbit, any kung fu movie with a training sequence, any movie with a scene inside a dry cleaning shop.

The mean, old, Asian asshole is usually played by old Asians or British actors pretending they are old Asians (more common back in the day when Asians were too Asian to appear in movies, even as Asians).

As its name can attest, the character is mean, old and a gigantic asshole. His entire purpose in life is to hurt and humiliate any person that wanders into his asshole-radius--or, as the scientists call it, the fuckusphere,--with a litany of insults, snappy comebacks or plain kicks and punches delivered with a heavy, vaguely Asian accent and the usual jumbled grammar.

The catch with this one is that often the Asian asshole turns out to be right in the end. Mr. Miyagi goes out of his way to make the Karate Kid's life hell, teaching his skills in the most annoying way possible all while arbitrarily withholding information that would have made the process easier for everyone. But, in the end, he makes the Karate Kid good at karate, which saves him from living a life with an embarrassingly mismatched nickname.

Even a show like Heroes, with its groundbreaking Japanese lead in Hiro, still introduces the stereotypical Old Asian Asshole in Hiro's father. And in the end, wouldn't you know it, it turns out he was right all along! He just felt the need to be a dick about it.

What's So Bad About That?
This one seems to simultaneously play off both our lingering post-World War II nervousness over Japan, and the sense of inferiority Americans have felt since the '80s when we started to realize how much better their cars, TV's and stereos were than ours.

So somehow we wind up with a character who is superior, and who possesses all of the secrets and techniques the white main character needs to succeed, but who for no reason at all will only share them after forcing him to penetrate 13 layers of pure asshole.

I feel that once a black fella has referred to white foks as "honky paleface devil white-trash cracker redneck Caspers," he's abdicated the right to get upset about the "N" word. But that's just me. -- Jim Goad

The Fifth Element, Dungeons & Dragons, Die Hard, Superman III, and a lot of movies with Eddie Murphy and Chris Tucker. And any forum with the character Eyelids.

A black cop and a white cop teaming up to defeat terrorist drug dealers/baby snuff porn peddlers is a beautiful and totally normal thing. Ebony, ivory, fighting crime together in harmony!

The problem comes when some higher up sees Lethal Weapon, starts messing with the formula and decides that one half of the team should be "funny." Now, there is nothing wrong with being funny, but then what's funnier than a bumbling, incompetent, annoying, cowardly person fighting crime with a serious, hard-as-nails action hero?

Now make a wild guess and tell us which half of the team is the one getting saddled with the non-heroic role?

What's So Bad About That?
If we have to explain why it's bad that the black guy is always the dumb one and the white guy is the invincible action-god, then we probably don't have enough room here to bring you up to speed.

What is interesting is the Bad Boys franchise, where Martin Lawrence plays the cowardly/incompetent black sidekick, but to a partner who is also black, but just in a more acceptable way. Does that still count? If not, why?

We'll leave that to you to figure out. Write a paper on the subject and turn it in by Thursday.

I feel that once a black fella has referred to white foks as "honky paleface devil white-trash cracker redneck Caspers," he's abdicated the right to get upset about the "N" word. But that's just me. -- Jim Goad

The single biggest stereotype in Hollywood is the Crazy Dogmatic, Bible Thumping, Christian zealot.
Hollywood spares no expense at giving all Christians a bad name

Seen in : The Mist, Crimes of Passion, Carrie, The Apostle, Major League, and hundreds more movies I cannot recall at the moment.

Gun Control: The theory that a woman found dead in an alley, raped and strangled with her panty hose, is somehow morally superior to a woman explaining to police how her attacker got that fatal bullet wound - Unknown

Everything out of Hollywood is a stereotype. It's the same for any TV show.

If there's a couple, the woman will be smart and witty and the man will be stupid. If it's a family, the same thing applies except the kids will be wittier than the woman with whom they will side.

If a Christian is involved they will be crazy or hopelessly naive or both. All legal gun owners are homicidal maniacs. All middle-aged women are sex-crazed cougars but no middle-aged can get it up unless a child is involved.

All gays just ooze urbane sophistication and all lesbians are selfless heroes. She-male guys know more about how to be a good friend, wife, or mother than any genetic female could ever know.

All smart women are perpetually angry and brittle. All white business people are evil. All non-white business people are saints (except drug dealers). All rural people are vicious inbreds or Kluxers or worthless trailer trash.

It goes on and on. It's completely unnecessary to watch most movies now. Just look up the characters and read the title and you will be able to put the whole thing together in about 5 minutes.

The single biggest stereotype in Hollywood is the Crazy Dogmatic, Bible Thumping, Christian zealot.
Hollywood spares no expense at giving all Christians a bad name

Seen in : The Mist, Crimes of Passion, Carrie, The Apostle, Major League, and hundreds more movies I cannot recall at the moment.

Hear, hear!
I was just about to point out how much Hollywood loves slinging around that bigoted cliche. A couple other examples include John Doe in 'Se7en,' Mason Verger in 'Hannibal' (It is established quickly that the only character in the film more psychotic and evil than Hannibal Lecter is the psychotic 'Christian' Verger who makes a point of asking Clarice Starling when he first meets her if she has accepted Jesus), and the character that I consider to be the ultimate, perfect epitome of this cliche: Jacob McGivens in the unspeakably awful excuse for a sequel, 'The Legend of Zorro.' He epitomizes almost every aspect of the 'Psycho Christian' stereotype flawlessly. He's ugly and dirty, racist, speaks with a thick Southern drawl, and spouts out Bible verses while killing people (Which he refers to as 'Doing the Lord's work") with his two customized pistols that he calls "Salvation" and "Damnation."

Regarding the article itself, I'd have to disagree with them including Hiro's father from 'Heroes' as an example of the "Old Asian Asshole' stereotype for two reasons:
1. He is not quite old enough, I think, to qualify. He is supposed to be maybe in his early 60s, most stereotypical 'old Asian assholes' are shown to be in at least their mid- 70s.
2. I wouldn't really call him an 'Asshole.' He was a strict, authoritative disciplinarian, but that's not the same thing. Throughout the whole storylines with him, you can tell that he does want what he at least thinks is best for Hiro, whereas with other holders of this stereotype, that does not become apparent until much later in the story.

Well, instead of bitching about it - become a producer and sponsor a major film, with the exact type of presentation you want to see on the screen - portrayed by the exact holism folks that warm the cockles of your heart. Then do a release in 7,700 theaters across the nation and see what your take is. In about a month you can do a late-night infomercial and try to make back your investment selling DVD between 1 and 5 AM.

Just remember - it’s The Joooooooooooooos!

At Coretta Scott King's funeral in early 2006, Ethel Kennedy, the widow of Robert Kennedy, leaned over to him and whispered, "The torch is being passed to you." "A chill went up my spine," Obama told an aide. (Newsweek)

Conspicuously off the list was the "Scowling Black Guy" stereo type. It seems like every fucking movie has to have at least one scowling black dude. The Fast and the Furious, 2 Fast 2 Furious, Crash, Pulp Fiction, King of New York, Heat, Major League, The Replacement Killers, Waist Deep, The Longest Yard, Fastlane, The Rock, Man on Fire, ect.

Now while in 98.99% of the time, a Christian character in a Hollywood Picture is a loon and over the top evil, in two movies they were not played that way. In Saving Private Ryan, Private Daniel Jackson was the pious but exceedingly deadly Ranger Sniper who prayed as he squeezed off shot after shot. The character was portrayed as a true Christian who prayed for the blessing of God upon others, but more importantly, for God's forgiveness as he was very good at killing the enemy. The film also made clear that he truly believed that he was forgiven because he was the only member of the squad who could sleep peacefully at night.

Another character who was portrayed as a believing Christian was Colin Farrell's role as FBI Special Agent Danny Witwer in Minority Report. Special Agent Witwer had been a seminary student who gave up the priesthood for a career in Law Enforcement after the murder of his father by IRA terrorists in Ireland. He is shown in prayer twice in the film. A quick prayer and kiss on his St. Christopher medallion before engaging in a fight with the lead character was the first. And he also prays after being mortally wounded and the villain is about to deliver the coup de gras with a bullet to his head.

Say what? Sgt. Powell was not cowardly or incompetent. His boss was the cowardly and incompetent one. Powell was two steps ahead of him at every turn. The limo driver was hardly a sidekick, but he also wasn't cowardly or incompetent.